With the advent of low cost microprocessors and the explosive growth of the PC industry, electronic gaming has proliferated at a blinding rate. Games and simulations are now executed, in homes and arcades, on a vast array of available hardware platforms, where each hardware platform yields its own unique combination of complexity, and fidelity, and cost. Depending on a given hardware implementation, game players may have many different types of control input devices at their disposal that are used to interact with a game or simulation. For example, driving games and simulations may use any combination of control input devices such as steering wheels, gear shifters, and gas/brake/clutch pedal units. Flight games and simulations may use any combination of control input devices such as throttles, weapons controllers, joysticks, rudder pedals, and flight yolks. First person perspective action games may use any combination of joystick, mouse, or 3D control. In most cases, a person playing a game or simulation is sitting in a seat of some kind while interacting with the hardware control input devices.
In order for tactile sensation to be effectively implemented by a modern electronic gaming system, where there are so many inconsistencies between various hardware systems and their software applications, an entirely new approach is necessary. In order to be most effective, a gaming or simulation system must be able to provide the illusion that all of the available disparate control input devices that control a given simulation are each part of a unified whole, and that they are not independent, physically disconnected devices. This is necessary to suspend the disbelief of the person who is interacting with the game or simulation system.
Due to the current and future countless implementations of computer based video game and simulation systems, and due to the continually expanding library of game and simulation applications that can be executed on such systems, a need exists in the art for a truly universal tactile feedback system that can function without regard to the specific apparatus, implementation, or application of any given system. Furthermore, a need exists in the art for a universal system that can accommodate currently existing and future control input devices, via simple and inexpensive tactile feedback actuators, that can be readily connected to or embedded within said devices, such that these disparate devices become part of a unified whole. Additionally, a need exists in the art for a universal system that will function both with and without support by the host gaming apparatus, achieving said functionality by implementing both a reprogrammable audio analysis function, and/or a direct digital control function. Moreover, a need exists in the art for a tactile feedback seating unit, that is not based on a low frequency speaker system, such that vehicle based games and simulations can be more realistically rendered, both with and without support by the host gaming apparatus. Furthermore, a need exists in the art for a vest-based tactile sensation generator, such that both open-body games and vehicle based games can be more realistically rendered, both with and without support by the host gaming apparatus. Finally, a need exists in the art for a universal tactile feedback system, such that the complete system is versatile, inexpensive, reliable, lightweight, quiet, reconfigurable, reprogrammable, and expandable.
Accordingly, it is a primary objective of the present invention to introduce a tactile feedback seating unit that can produce tactile feedback within a seat, that is not based upon a low frequency speaker system, that can function via host-independent digital audio analysis and/or host-dependent direct digital control, the digital signal not necessarily being specific to the actuators in the seat, but rather a general control signal for a distributed system, in order to represent tactile sensations occurring in real time within a computer generated game or simulation, such that the person sitting in the seat feels this representation, and the tactile feedback provided by such a system further enhances the believability of the simulation. It is an additional primary objective of the present invention to implement the tactile feedback seating unit as a self contained unit, where a plurality of tactile feedback actuators are embedded inside a semi-rigid sealed foam cushion, such that the unit is portable, lightweight and quiet, and can fit in almost any chair and function with almost any application.